ORIGIN

1969 VW Powered Buggy

This VW powered buggy is titled as a 1969, and though not an authentic Meyers Manx looks pretty good. It runs a single car motor of unspecified displacement, and is said to have tight suspension and good brakes. The creamsicle paint scheme is hew, and it’s said to run well with a good clutch and transmission. Bigger engine options are available for extra cost. Find it here on TheSamba.com in Colorado Springs, Colorado for $6,500.

When it comes to vehicles used in The Thomas Crown Affair I would have preferred to buy the 1-23 glider McQueen’s character flew (McQueen only sat in it on the ground for close up shots) – and it would have sold for about the same price as any other 1-23 in similar condition unlike the cars which seem to command huge premiums for celebrity association. Sadly it was crashed recently and would take a hell of a lot of work to restore:

@Bill Gillooly – Your point is well taken. It’s tough to be sure, but it kinda looks like your basic Meyers Manx with some recessed headlight buckets. Maybe some other subtle mods to make it more “McQueen”. That might ring true if you believe the back story on hunterdunebuggy.com

There were a lot of do-it-yourself dune buggy packages in the late 60’s. You could buy them in the Sears catalog. With minor variations they all looked pretty much the same.

@jboat49 – I couldn’t agree more. In the end, no matter what it was, 140+ hp of flat 6 Corvair grunt in about 1000 lbs of fiberglass and random VW parts must have been an awesome ride. Those sand dunes and seagulls never saw it coming.

Nice buggy, clean and simple except for the cage. I’m not saying a cage is a bad idea, but this one could look a lot cleaner and still be effective. Perhaps the builder was going for the full sandrail look, if so, he achieved it. Clean lighting treatment, nice paint and correct looking wheels on 5 wide drums make this a good looker, with just enough bling. Price seems more than reasonable for what you get here.

As far as the safety police go, I can’t believe nobody commented on the complete lack of mirrors. Yeah, a few of those might help safety a bit…

@Dazed and Amused — great link, thanks! Nice to get the whole backstory.

The Queen was a nasty little thing, 140HP pushing maybe 1000 pounds — an afternoon in that on the Cape dunes would be like an hour in a Lockheed-Martin F22 Raptor with one of our ace jet jocks at the stick. Skip breakfast, if you get my meaning. Fun stuff!

Ages ago when I was a teenager a friend of mine had a Manx that was setup for street racing/drag racing. That thing was NUTS. At its fastest state (had many different engines over the years) it could run the 1/4 in the 10’s. If I remember correctly it was under 1K lbs even with a front bumper full of cement. The topper? Custom license plate that said ‘SPEEDBGY’, or some variation of that. It was extra fun since at the time many gearheads refused to believe you could make a lot of power from a VW based engine. Good times. Oh…and it had a full cage. And harnesses. And wheelie bars. I wouldn’t ride in one of these even with 40HP without a cage. Zero protection without one.

It is very possible to roll one of these and die being crushed by it. Trust me. I wish I didnt, but I know from first hand experience. Call it a nanny state mentality if you want. Personally I am a small government conservative and believe you have the right to do any stupid thing you want to do and put your life at risk all that you care to. Dont want to wear a helmet? Fine by me. Wanna skydive? Sure, I did it when I was younger. Dont think a rollbar looks cool? Maybe it doesnt, but neither does a wheelchair. Please dont BS me and try to tell me that the stupid life threatening thing you are doing is safe and that I am just a big old baby for choosing not to join you.

had to comment here – a good buddy of mine had one (with an acrylic Miller beertap shifter, no less) and we rolled up to Lake Tahoe from SF/Bay Area in the middle of summer, circa 1997. had to stop at the Holiday Inn near Sacramento to gatecrash the pool (it was about 105 degrees) and kept pulling over on the I-80 hillclimb, as the temp gauge starting creeping up every few miles. no cage, of course. had a blast of a weekend in that noisy beast. also recall having a pretty wicked sunburn. good times.

If you want old, when Speedbuggy came out, I didn’t watch because it was a “kiddy” cartoon!

Rode in one of these a few times that was set up as an autocrosser with Porsche engine and slicks. Damn thing would nearly tear your head off in a corner! Never thought it would be a good idea to hit anything in one of these…

I had one of the Cox cars, and one airplane, back in the early ’70s. Very cool, fun times!

The feature car is a bit over the top with that cage, but the safety ninnies ought to be pleased with it. The color actually helps the appearance of that with the body colors, so I guess I could live with it, were it mine.

In the ’70s, a neighbor had a real Manx buggy, with the single chrome rollbar. It was a bright red car that had the baddddest sound of any VW engine I’ve ever heard, then or since. He and his wife (she had a pink ’67 Mustang) would take that buggy out to the desert on Sundays and have a ball with it. They had no kids, and they always looked like they had fun, no matter what they were doing. That Manx was quite the car.

OK — how many of you remember the original Thomas Crown Affair, the good one (1968), with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway? McQueen ripping up the dunes in a Corvair-powered Manx, getting air all over the place? The producers had it built but he sorted it himself during production. Did all the driving, too. Those had to be the most fun shooting days during the entire production.

My former in-laws have a 69 EMPI Imp that is almost identical to this, though I suspect there were many, many knockoffs of the Manx back in the day. These are super fun cars for very reasonable money, and extremely easy to modify/tune to suit any taste. Nice find!

The rearmost portion of the cage does not appear to be attached to anything. Not sure how effective that would be.

I must be old because I used to have a Cox 049 buggy which I converted to RC (good idea) then a two cylinder on a common crank pin (bad idea) and, later, a full-sized buggy with a single port/single carb 1600. Slow, fun and noisy but seriously needs more power as the seller suggests.

The ‘Nanny State’ has made us all a bunch of Ninnies. How likely are you to roll this buggy? I have one – an Authenticated Manx, and it would be hard to do. The center of gravity without this cage is so near the ground you can drive nearly vertically without fear. Few ever go out to the dunes anyway now that driving on most public dunes banned.

It looks like my Cox dune buggy from the 60’s. Does it run on nitromethane in a can? Have an .049 engine? If you remember that, yep, you definitely are old. Love the buggy but not sure about the roll cage.

A lot of people prefer the kingpin front end for offroad but the preferred rear suspension is irs over swing axle. If you were to get serious a new rear suspension is needed. Stepping up to dual port heads would be nice too. At any rate this baby looks like a lot of fun for not very much money with the cage to keep you safe while having fun!

I remember Speedy very well. That’s why having one of these is on my bucket list! Probably not one with this particular cage though. Simple black single bar would work for me. Maybe even purple metal flake…..

Must be Charles Manson week on BaT. First we have an example of the ’59 Ford that Tex, Sadie and the gang drove to the Tate-LaBianca murders. Now here’s a replica of the late ’60s dune buggy, which the Family used to steal cars and parts in order to build. Far out man.

This is pretty cool. Don’t know much about them but have always wanted a fun and different car that is old enough to be classic but not going to break the bank and is also uber easy to work on. Would probably rather have a CJ that could double as a winter driver to keep my dd cleaner and salt free. Good thing my wife is still a stay at home mom or I might have expendable income and buy a cheap toy.